{"id":19537,"date":"2018-07-13T01:00:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T08:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=19537"},"modified":"2018-07-11T18:10:37","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T01:10:37","slug":"dreams-as-story-devices-by-kay-keppler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/13\/dreams-as-story-devices-by-kay-keppler\/","title":{"rendered":"Dreams as Story Devices by Kay Keppler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Revise<\/a> Let\u2019s\u00a0welcome\u00a0back monthly columnist, editor, and novelist,\u00a0Kay Keppler<\/a>, as she shares with us \u201cDreams as Story Devices.\u201d\u00a0Enjoy!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Dreams have played crucial roles in literature.<\/strong> Dickens\u2019s A Christmas Carol<\/em> wouldn\u2019t happen without Scrooge\u2019s dream, and in The Metamorphosis<\/em>, Kafka\u2019s protagonist is transformed into a giant beetle after an uneasy dream. Shakespeare\u2019s plays are full of characters whose dreams foretell their actions. However:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t Start Your Story with a Dream<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s a guideline that might seem contradictory: No matter how much you might be tempted to do otherwise, don\u2019t write, \u201cAnd then s\/he woke up\u201d or the equivalent after your opening passage.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

You Can\u2019t Make Sense from Nonsense<\/h2>\n

In real life, dreams have their own logic. They jump around, juxtapose images, fade and intensify, ignore transitions. They can have vivid images or events, or they can be vague feelings with murky, ungraspable situations. They often don\u2019t make sense, but they are incontrovertible. You can\u2019t argue or refute them\u2014or even make sense of them\u2014because you had the dream.<\/p>\n

And yet, when the dream is translated or converted or conveyed in rational prose, it sounds artificial. Fake. Forced. You can lose a lot of readers quickly if the opening to your story is a dream, because if it\u2019s a dream, it\u2019s unlikely to make sense or read well, even if you\u2019ve written it \u201cauthentically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Readers Might Not Go with You<\/h2>\n

But a bigger problem with fictional dreams is that they ask readers to invest emotionally in an experience that turns out to be false, or at least, \u201cnot real.\u201d This can have two consequences when readers learn the passage was a dream:<\/p>\n